Ipsen licensed rights in North America and Japan to Circassia in 2008; the drug had never been approved in those countries.

[2] Very common (greater than 10%) adverse effects include fast heart beats and nausea.

[2] Common (between 1% and 10%) adverse effects include tremor, headache, transient low blood pressure, vomiting, increased sweating, sepsis, sinus and nodal slow heart beat, cardiac arrest, myocardial infarction, cardiac enzyme changes, non-specific ECG changes, high blood pressure, hemorrhage, respiratory failure, acute respiratory distress syndrome, pulmonary edema, pulmonary hypertension, and kidney failure.

[2] People can develop drug tolerance to dopexamine if it is administered over a long period of time, as with other catecholamines.

[12] Dopexamine was approved for use in the European Union for treatment of symptoms related to heart failure in 2010.

[2] In 2008 the UK company Circassia acquired the US, Canadian, and Japanese marketing rights to dopexamine from Ipsen; at the time, the company said it was planning to develop a new formulation of dopexamine in combination with fluids delivered via IV fluids, looking to improve outcomes following surgery.

[13] A Teva recalled batches of dopexamine in the UK in 2014 due to quality control issues by the manufacturer, Cephalon.

[14] Use in sepsis has been explored in clinical trials, but use of an inotropic agent like dobutamine or dopexamine did not reduce mortality compared with norepinephrine or epinephrine.